Bushfires: Cruel blow as blaze refugees’ car stolen

A family that lost its home last week has been dealt a second cruel blow, after their car loaded with donated supplies was stolen.

A family that lost its Tintaldra home to the Victorian bushfires last week has been dealt a second cruel blow, after their car loaded with donated supplies was stolen.

Michael and Carolina Wild and their children have been staying with a relative in Albury just over the NSW border since fleeing the blaze with only the clothes on their back last Saturday.

Mr Wild woke on Thursday to discover that his white 2001 Toyota Tarago was gone. “At first I thought my wife had gone to the shops and then I realised, no, it’s been stolen,” he said.

“I thought ‘You dirty rat!’ It was filled with all the gear we’d spent the day collecting, such as food from the relief centre, clothes we’d bought with vouchers we’d been given and toys … donated for the kids from the guys at the pub.”

The Wilds, with their children Logan, 4 and Summer, 2, and puppy Sparky, who at one stage was feared lost in the fire, had previously sought refuge at the Tintaldra Hotel, where they benefited from the generosity of new publican Darren Jones and other locals.

Mr Wild said he wanted to warn other bushfire refugees to be alert to opportunistic thieves. He said many people in his home town didn’t lock their houses and often left their keys in the car. “It’s like that in the country, but up here it’s different, of course,” he said.

The theft, which has been reported to local police, comes after alleged looting in some bushfire-ravaged areas and reports of scammers seeking to exploit bushfire victims, including by setting up fraudulent fundraising pages.

“We’ve had tough things happen before and got through it,” Mr Wild said.

“It just feels like we’re not welcome anywhere at the moment.”